What’s more exotic, a mango or a turnip? In New York City, and most of the U.S., you can buy mangoes at many stores. Turnips are harder to find. People say they travel to experience new, exotic things. But they don’t see that there are new things in their back yards. What’s sweeter, ice cream or an apple? Ice cream has more sugar than apples and for most Americans, who[…] Keep reading →

Apparently of all the materials we mine, extract, harvest and so on, after six months, less than one percent is still in use or in the product we got it for. Over 99% of what we get from the earth is used that long. I found that statistic from The Story of Stuff (video and annotated script). These two pages 21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually[…] Keep reading →

Mark Bidwell, founder and podcast host of Innovation Ecosystem, posted today a wonderful interview about Leadership Step by Step, experiential learning, exercises, and more. I can only describe Mark as someone who gets it. He ascended the corporate ladder, where he drove innovation, built teams, and so on, then found there was more to life and is creating resources to enable others to. If you are looking to improve your[…] Keep reading →

Sami Honkonen records Boss Level Podcast Interviews with interesting people doing awesome things Boss Level is a podcast on people and organizations aiming for the boss level. Boss level is the status a person or an organization achieves by making a better quality of life for themselves and others by doing what they need to do regardless of all the haters and obstacles out there. I love his interview of[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of responses to the New York Times’, The Ethicist, without imposing values, here is my take on today’s post, “What to Do About a Physician Who May Be a Quack.” I live in an affluent community in New Jersey. I am a scientist with a Ph.D. and have worked for a company that researched Lyme disease. I am very involved with our hospital, where the head of[…] Keep reading →

Consider two travelers. One went online, bought a plane ticket to a spot half way around the world, took a taxi to the airport by highway he’s been on countless times, got in a plane—a long metal tube he can’t see out of—sat, confined, packed with hundreds of others, was fed food from a box, watched movies on a tiny screen, slept fitfully, eventually emerged in an airport similar to[…] Keep reading →

If you separate the following things, I think you’re making a mistake: Work and life If you’re trying to balance work and life, I think you made a bigger mistake in separating them, even if you balance them somehow. You don’t stop living when you’re at work and why would you stop working in “regular” life outside of work if you love what you do for work. You love your[…] Keep reading →

Flexibility in your beliefs and mental models is a key part of intelligence and leadership. Your beliefs influence how you see the world. Only being able to see things one way confines you to a mental jail and keeps you from solving problems. Think of the 4-minute mile. When everyone believed breaking it was impossible, almost nobody tried. Once the first man did, within months another followed. Now high school[…] Keep reading →

My books and courses teach empathy. I used to think of empathy as an intangible, nebulous, even weird concept I couldn’t really understand. Now I view it as a skill anyone can learn as well as they can learn to ride a bike or throw a baseball. Improving your empathy skills improves your ability to lead, all your relationships, and your moods. As a teacher, it’s incredible to see people[…] Keep reading →